captioning made possible by johnson & johnson, where quality products for the american family have been a tradition for generations >> osgood: good morning. i'm charles osgood and this is sunday morning. tomorrow is memorial day. the day set aside to honor those who have fought and died in the service of our country. the military for the most part. but there are others who have put their lives on the line in spectacular fashion, and some of them have made the supreme sacrifice. for the past 50 years, that has been true of america's manned space program.

it too is part of our proud history. and its future is uncertain at best. david pogue will report on the end of an era in our sunday morning cover story. >> reporter: there's no show like a space shuttle launch. some people call it a near religious experience. but the space shuttle will soon be history. >> it will actually... intellectually we've known that this end is coming. but emotionally it's tough as each vehicle retires. >> reporter: later on sunday morning, what killed the space shuttle and what will come after it? >> osgood: the biggest hit on broadway right now is an unlikely mix of religious history and outrageous musical comedy. its creators make an outspoken pair as we'll be seeing and hearing from rita braver. ♪ two by two we're marching door to door ♪ >> reporter: a hit broadway musical about mormons?

♪ the church of jesus christ of latter day saints ♪ > what is so funny about religion? >> everything is funny about it. >> for us, we tell stories. that's like what we do. >> reporter: later on sunday morning, on stage and back stage at the hottest show on broadway. >> osgood: iron mike is mike tyson, the former heavyweight boxing champ whose reputation has been sullied by a mean streak as damaging as his powerful punches. these days, however, he's trying to soften that mean-guy image as he squares off conversationally with our mr. nice guy bill whitaker. >> it's the truth. i'm the best. >> reporter: we all know former heavyweight champ mike tyson, the baddest man on the planet, a brute in the ring and out. or do we? >> this is garbage. all this is garbage. it's only symbols of greatness. >> reporter: meese the mike tyson you have never met

before. later on sunday morning. >> osgood: cabin fever is associated more with winter than with summer. but log cabins did affect the early lives of several american presidents including several who claimed to be born in one. our mo rocca was not born in a log cabin, i'm pretty sure, but he's become an enthusiast as you'll see. >> reporter: the log cabin, symbol of american grit and birth place of seven presidents. does anyone build them anymore? yes. these dartmouth students built a cabin from the ground up. and let me use their chainsaw. later on sunday morning, building a log cabin. it's not just for 19th century presidential candidates anymore. >> osgood: russ mitchell marks 100 years in the indy 500. anthony mason remembers the woman.

serena altschul takes us to the source of the marble and honors america's war dead. first the headlines for this sunday morning the 29th of may, 2011. officials in joplin, missouri, have lowered the official count of people killed in last weekend's huge tornado to 139. 100 others are still considered missing. president obama just back from his six-day trip to europe travels to joplin this afternoon. our ben tracy has spent the weekend in that devastated town. >> looking back there, the altar and sanctuary would have been where they're standing. >> reporter: this is not what sunday morning was supposed to look like. >> we try to hold up. then we break. we hug one another. >> reporter: father justin moynihan is now leading a deacon instruction effort. finishing off what the tornado began at his beloved st. mary's church. >> a lot of that will have to be replaced. it won't be able to be used.

>> reporter: meanwhile officials are identifying more of the dead. 18-year-old will norton is now one of them. he was sucked out of the sunroof of his car during the tornado after his high school graduation. his aunt offered a reminder of the human toll. >> we're not just pictures on tv or in the paper. we are people. we have families. we have feelings and we have faith. >> reporter: and faith in the future. this beauty salon is already being rebuilt. >> we are getting married. >> finally. >> finally getting married. >> 1, 2, 3. >> reporter: and this young couple went on with their wedding day. president obama is coming here to joplin to see all of this firsthand and to speak at the city's memorial service. father moynihan will offer the prayer. >> i think we're all saying, hey, we're strong. we can put this together. we'll rebuild. we'll be stronger than ever.

>> reporter: for sunday morning, this is ben tracy in joplin, missouri. >> osgood: alaska's former governor sarah palin kicks off an east coast bus tour in washington fueling speculation she'll soon become a candidate for the republican presidential nomination. former new york city mayor judy giuliani is expected to visit new hampshire later this week. he'll also be in the field of g.o.p. contenders. passengers and crew had to scramble to get off a delta airlines jet in atlanta yesterday. a fire broke out after touchdown. the cause, either a blown tire or jammed brakes or both. nobody was hurt seriously. lockheed martin the government's top information technology provider yesterday disclosed it had detected and thwarted what this company called a significant cyber attack on its information systems about a week ago. lock heed says no data was compromised. now for today's weather. some rain will fall in the midwest and on the northern

plains. but it will be sunny and warm across the south and along the east coast. for most of us the memorial day forecast looks even better. do give a thought to those we honor as you enjoy your day in the sun. next, the end of an era. >> this one lady walked out and threw her purse over her shoulder and threw the program down on the ground. we loved it actually. >> osgood: later the folks

the kincaids live here. across the street, the padillas. ben and his family live here, too. ben's a re/max agent, and he's a big part of this community. there are lots of reasons why re/max agents average more sales than other agents. experience, certainly. but maybe it's also because they care about the markets they serve and the neighbors who rely on them. nobody sells more real estate than re/max.

>> osgood: the space shuttle endeavor will remain in orbit until wednesday. as for the future of america's manned space program, that remains up in the air. our cover story marking the end of an era is reported now by david pogue of the "new york times". >> reporter: nasa does all kinds of stuff. they build space robots, they send up satellites. they study the oceans. but come on. who are we kidding? when most people think about nasa, they think about that. manned space flight. the space shuttle. but now after 30 years and 135 flights, nasa has decided to close down the space shuttle program. the shuttle is an amazing machine. it takes off like a rocket but lands like a plane.

so it's reusable. >> touchdown. >> lift-off of space shuttle discovery with the hubble space telescope. >> reporter: it's had spectacular successes. it carried the hubble space telescope into orbit letting us see millions of times farther into space than we ever could before. >> endeavor, we have captured. >> reporter: and the shuttle built the international space station, hunk by hunk. made possible by its huge cargo bay, its air lock, and its robotic arm. it launched the first american female astronaut into space. and the first black astronaut. >> take me around the world one more time. >> reporter: the shuttle has become a fixture of pop culture. a movie star.

but the space shuttle has also developed a reputation for technical problems. originally it was supposed to fly dozens of times a year and cheaply. >> i think we may have oversold it in the beginning, the reuseability and how easy it would be to get into space. >> reporter: william has been with nasa since 1977. today he's in charge of the shuttle and the space station. >> things we thought we would just get it back and turn it right around and go fly. it turned out we got it back and we had to do a lot of inspection if between. that's increased the cost a little bit from what we were originally projecting. >> reporter: the shuttle isn't a mass-produced s.u.v. each one is hand built from hundreds of thousands of complex custom parts. that's one reason it's so finicky. i learned that firsthand back on april 29 when i joined about 700,000 other people to witness the endeavor's final lift-off. everything seemed to be picture perfect.

we were all psyched for that historic moment. and then two hours before blast-off nasa discovered a glitch. and delayed the launch for two weeks. turned out to be a tiny blown fuse. >> challenger go with throttle- up. >> reporter: the shuttle's complexity was also responsible for its too far more traumatic failures. the challenger disaster in 1986 and the disintegration of the columbia in 2003. terrible sdentses that killed everyone on board. but for better or worse, in good times and bad, the shuttle was a symbol of american technical superiority. it was the unmistakable icon of a nation on the rise. and it's sad to see that era end. but william says the shuttle isn't ending because we've lost our mojo. it's because the next missions require different designs to

go into deeper space like the orion capsule that nasa just unveiled. >> we need more of a smaller capsule that can take that heat of coming back from those larger destinations with the higher reentry velocity. we need a smaller more compact vehicle than the winged vehicle we have today. >> reporter: we're supposed to be doing research on the international space station. but the space shuttle that we use to get back and forth is now retired. how are we going to get back and forth now? >> we're going to use a space craft which we've been using for crew rotations for about the last two years. >> reporter: that's right. we're representing from the russians. >> discovery, your goal. >> i was actually the pilot or the co-pilot on the hubble space telescope mission in 1990. now you talk about thrilling missions. >> reporter: charles boldon was an astronaut on four missions. >> minus 538. >> reporter: today boldon is

the head of nasa. >> i'm going to outsource access, the provision of access to the international space station while i take nasa's funding and i go explore. >> lift-off. >> reporter: as a back-up to our russian ride, nasa has hired commercial space craft companies to build a space shuttle replacement so nasa can focus on more ambitious missions. >> we could conceivably put a human on the surface of mars in 2030. the president has told us he wants us to rendevouz with and put us in the vicinity of an afterer i'd. >> reporter: still as the shuttle retires nasa's manned space program is at a cross roads. >> the commercial vehicles are not yet ready. the commercial cargo delivery systems are not yet ready. the commercial crew vehicles are several years even farther away. >> reporter: scott pace used to work for nasa. now he's the director of the space policy institute at george washington university. he's not sure nasa will ever send another manned rocket into space.

>> there may not be one. it may be one where nasa simply buys commercial launch services or it may be that nasa decides that it really does need to have a government- owned and operated vehicle. the distance of commercial airline services does not mean we don't have military cargo transports. we have both. we use each as appropriate. >> reporter: there were three working space shuttles left. that's the atlantis being wheeled out to the launch pad for its lift-off in july. the endeavor is in space right now. it will land for the last time on wednesday. and the discovery lifted off for the last time in february. right now it's in that building over there already being dismantled. >> this is the shuttle discovery. they're in the process of decommissioning the vehicle. they're getting the toxic propelants, all the things that can cause, taking those off the vehicle. they'll ship them off to the museum. >> reporter: bill harwood has been a cbs spatial analyst for 20 years.

he calls the shuttle a magnificent failure. >> it was a failure in that it didn't deliver on the political promise in the early days of 25 flights a year and low cost access to space but it was a magnificent vehicle. i think everyone is going to miss it when it's gone. >> intellectually i think we've known this end was coming but i think emotionally it's stuff tough as each vehicle kind of retires. >> yeah, it will be emotional but it's necessary. we're being given a very, very, very rare opportunity to make this nation again be the leader of human exploration beyond the earth's orbit. i cannot believe the american public won't say, hey, i want to be a part of that.

i want to be living when humans once again travel beyond the earth's orbit. i want my kids to see what i saw. i'll cry. in 1969 when humans walked on the moon. i want my granddaughters to see another human go to another heavenly body. so, yeah, you know i get emotional about that. i apologize. >> reporter: i totally understand. maybe that's why two weeks ago when the endeavor was finally cleared for take-off, suddenly all the delays and the glitches didn't seem to matter. so the space shuttle may not be technologically necessary anymore, but it had a huge symbolic value of poetic patriotic value and it's sad to see it end. now nasa will retool. it hopes to go where the space shuttle was built to go: onward and upward. >> and lift-off for the final launch of endeavor.

expanding our knowledge. expanding our lives in space. >> osgood: ahead, little roady living large. host: could switching to geico really save you 15% or more on car insurance? host: would foghorn leghorn make a really bad book narrator?

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>> osgood: and now a page from our sunday morning almanac. may 29, 1790, 221 years ago today. the day rhode island became the last of the 13 original states to ratify the constitution. founded by independent-minded clergyman roger williams in 1636, rhode island has long been a home to religious liberty and free thinking. in fact, rhode island proclaimed independence from great britain two months before the continental congress issued its declaration. and it delayed ratifying the constitution until the bill of rights had been added. of course, rhode island has always done things its own way. the official state shellfish is the kohawg while it's official drink is milk mixed with coffee syrup. don't be surprised if a rhode island ice cream parlor covers

you a cabinet. it's rhode island speak for milk shake. it boasts cities, beaches and the mansions of newport. it also lays claim to george m. cohan. ♪ give my regards to broadway ♪ >> osgood: great performer and songwriter. to nelson eddie, the singer and actor and to richard hatch. the survivor at a vee show winner who went to jail for tax evasion. at just over 1200 square miles of land and water, it's our smallest state. yet it also has the longest official name. it is state of rhode island and providence plantations. reaffirmed by voters in a referendum just last year. appropriately enough the ocean state rhode island and providence plantations charts its own course. no wonder the figure atop the state house dome is called the independent man.

>> osgood: coming, picasso in love. we all want our kids to eat their vegetables, but they'd rather they disappear. mott's medleys has two total fruit and veggie servings in every glass but magically looks and tastes just like the fruit juice kids already love. mott's medleys. invisible vegetables. magical taste. finally, there's a choice for my patients with an irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation, or afib, that's not caused by a heart valve problem.

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>> osgood: picasso found inspiration for his art wherever he could. especially from his significant others. anthony mason now with the story of one in particular. >> reporter: the painter pablo picasso had two wives and many mistresses. but marie trees vol tear may have been his ultimate model and muse. >> it was the greatest love of his life. he absolutely adored her. >> reporter: for nearly three decades, marie trees inspired some of his greatest work.

two of picasso's portraits of her have sold for or been valued at more than $100 million each. >> he had her in mind always, all the time. everything relates to her. when he was painting landscapes he was painting her. he was absolutely obsessed by her. >> reporter: john richardson befriended picassos in the '50s. >> this is you. >> that's me and that's picasso on the steps of lacalifornia at kauns. >> reporter: the author of a multi-volume biography of the artist richardson is curator of a new show devoted to the love affair of picasso and marie teresa. how did they meet? >> he picked her up. >> reporter: it was outside of a paris department store in 1927. she was 17. he was 45. you have an interesting face, the artist told her. i am picasso. the name meant nothing to her. but.... >> she liked his tie she

remembered very well. she liked his tie and he had a nice smile. he was very seductive. a week later she was his mistress. >> reporter: what do you think she saw in him? >> she saw someone who was kind, who paid attention to her, who thought she was beautiful. >> reporter: she is co-curator of the exhibition. if you see a resemblance, well this is your grandmother. >> yes. >> reporter: diana whitt meyer picasso is the granddaughter of the artist and marie teresa. when you started looking at this as an art historian, did you like.... >> did i see myself in the picture? >> reporter: yourself or something about your grandmother? >> well, i think it's almost like if i feel i'm with picasso and marie teresa at the same time. >> reporter: the only moving image of marie teresa comes from a souvenir flip book of 48 photographs. where was this taken? >> in paris. used to have these cameras along the grand boulevard.

>> reporter: a note in the flip book suggests picasso was with her that day. >> it almost feels that picasso is guiding her in the way she turns the profile. >> reporter: marie teresa at first did not appear physically in his paintings of her. this is essentially in code, yes? >> it certainly is. you have the initials m.t., marie teresa and you have picasso's hand in the silhouette in the background. >> reporter: what is the reason for the cope. >> to keep maria teresa from being spotted in his work by his extremely jealous wife. >> reporter: his first wife olga was a former russian ballerina. when i love a woman, picasso once said, that tears everything apart. especially my painting. >> this i think is one of the most beautiful images picasso ever did of marie teresa. he knew her look by heart. but just seeing her lying in the grass she liked to sleep and so on would inspire a

painting like this one. >> reporter: picasso and marie teresa never married but they had a daughter maia. two months after her birth, picasso met dora marr who would become his next mistress. was there a break up with maria teresa or did she just fade out of the picture? >> she faded out of the picture. marie teresa remained totally in love with picasso until her dying day. >> reporter: at picasso's death in 1973, an abstract sculpture of marie teresa was placed over his grave. why do you think he wanted that sculpture on his grave? >> i think he saw marie teresa as his real wife. she was the one person of all women in his life who had given him the most love, the most understanding. >> reporter: 50 years after their first meeting, marie teresa took her own life. for the muse there was no

living without the artist. >> osgood: next, the book of mormon, chapter and verse. ♪ and i would like to share with you the most amazing book ♪ >> osgood: and later paris then. and now. >> i'm in love with you. ,,,,,,,,

>> it's sunday morning on cbs and here again is charles osgood. >> osgood: the animated characters of south park have been amusing and sometimes offending tv viewers since 1997. now the creators of that series have unleashed their talents on broadway. as rita braver can testify firsthand, good luck scoring a ticket. >> hello! who wants to see book of mormon tonight? >> reporter: everybody it seems. >> i would buy a ticket but they don't have to sell one. you have to join the lotery. >> reporter: it sold out for months with scalpers charging as much as $900 for one seat. so no wonder a huge crowd

forms before every performance for a lottery that lets ten winners buy tickets. >> linda tam. >> reporter: this is what all the fuss is about. >> hello, my name is elder price. >> reporter: it's a musical about mormon missionaries. >> hello. >> reporter: really? when you think book of mormon and you think broadway musical, that doesn't really.... >> perfect. that's exactly what we thought. >> total perfect. >> hello, little boy. >> reporter: total sense if you're trey parker and matt stone. the irreverent creators of south park. they've had such a long-time fascination with mormonism, the religion founded in 1830 in upstate new york by joseph smith, that they did an episode of their tv show about it. >> suddenly god and jesus appeared before me. they said i should start my own church because none of the others had it right.

>> mormonism is an american religion. and it's young. so you can kind of look at its origins and its stories a little bit easier. it's not 2,000 years ago. it's only 200 years ago. >> when we met bobby and he had the same thought we're just like, yeah, it's perfect. >> reporter: bobby is robert lopez. one of the creators of the broadway hit avenue q. >> if you work, that would be okay. >> reporter: he met the south park guys when they came to see that musical. >> i'd like you anyway. >> reporter: after the show i took them out for a drink. they said what are you working on next? i said, well, i've been thinking about doing something about mormons or about joseph smith. they said that's what we've been wanting to do since college. >> reporter: so how weird is that? that all three of you were fascinated and thought it was a subject for musical comedy? >> it was weird enough that we decided to do it together.

we decided we have to work on this together. this is a sign. >> reporter: what ensued was seven years in the making. ♪ two by two we're marching door to door ♪ ♪ god loves mormons and he wants some more ♪ ♪ we are the church of jesus christ of latter day saints ♪ > the show centers on two young mormons sent off to uganda. one plays the model missionary. he's very self satisfied. conceited. >> i don't know about that. i just think it's confident. i would say he's very confident. >> reporter: josh plays the misfit missionary. >> he's one of those people that everybody tends to call annoying. he's also a bit of an exaggerateor. he has a tendency to lie about certain things. >> hello. would you like to change religions? i have a free book written by jesus. >> reporter: both scored tony tom nations for best actor.

in fact, the show earned 14 nominations including best musical. it's the most of any play this season. >> there you have it. the mormon hair-do. >> reporter: i love that sign down there. run-away hit. that kind of says it all. doesn't it? >> it could have said something way worse. >> reporter: as you might expect from these bad boys, the book of mormon leaves no four-letter word unspoken. few taboos untouched. what's so funny about religion? >> everything's funny about religion. i mean for us everything is, you know, we tell stories. that's like what we do. >> reporter: you've made fun over the years of jews, scientologists, catholics, muslims. is there a whole series of musicals on the horizon here? >> no, because they're not all happy and fun as mormons are. >> reporter: has anyone been offended by the musical? >> this one lady walked out. they threw her purse over her

shoulder and threw the program down on the ground. we loved it actually. >> reporter: and just about everyone seems to love the song that has villagers cursing god, for giving them such a miserable life. >> it's got a beat. boom, boom, boom. ♪ there isn't enough food to eat ♪ ♪ people are starving in the street ♪ and the girls sing. kind of like that. >> reporter: that's a made-up phrase. that's from no language, huh? >> it's okay to say it on tv. >> reporter: but along with mocking religion... ♪ i believe > there's also respect. ♪ i believe that the lord god created the universe ♪ ♪ i believe that he sent his only son to die for my sins ♪

> a turning point in the play comes when the most devout missionary overcomes a crisis of faith. ♪ i am a mormon >> and he's saying if you're true, you have to believe it all. ♪ i'm a mormon. just believe ♪ > trey, have you heard anything officially from the mormon church about this? >> they came out and said, well, they might really entertain you for a night. the book of mormon will really change your life. in fact this book will change your life was already a line in if show. that was really cool. >> reporter: ultimately this cutting-edge musical embraces the old-fashioned broadway tradition. of melody and merriment. ♪ it's the latter day tomorrow ♪ snet. >> no matter how much we rip on something or make fun of something, we try to be positive and optimistic. that's what i think, that's

what gets this stuff through. ♪ the book of mormon ( cheers and applause ) >> osgood: ahead, why the grass is always greener. ♪ i've seen the sunrise paint the desert. witnessed snowfall on the first day of spring. ♪ but the most beautiful thing i've ever seen was the image on a screen that helped our doctor see my wife's cancer was treatable. [ male announcer ] ge technologies help doctors detect cancer early so they can save more lives. bringing better health to more people. ♪ chances are your soil is like this: compacted, drained of nutrients.

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specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different. we have access to great specialists, and our pediatrician gets all the information. everyone works as a team. and i only need to talk to one person about her care. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. >> osgood: if mowing the lawn figures into your holiday weekend plans, you might want to check in first with josh landis and mitch butler of the fast draw. >> americans spend small fortunes and endless hours trying to tame their lawns.

when you look closely at this turf battle, you realize that the grass has us doing the dirty work. professor ted steinberg is an historian who wrote a book about americans and their lawns. >> when you think about it, the perfect lawns are high- energy, resource-intensive affair. there's nothing natural about it in the least. >> he documented billions of dollars spent on mothers and trimmers and the gasoline to run them. oceans of weed killer and fertilizer, the stuff we use to keep all that grass happy. >> the ruls can be seen from space. a nasa scientist calculates that lawns cover 40 million acres in the u.s., making lawn grass the number-one irrigated crop in the country. how does such a little plant get so big. >> he says in the mechanical decades after the civil war new equipment came out that allowed homeowners to have modest yards. >> but it was the end of the second world war that really kicked off this green revelation. it happened when all those homes were built for returning

g.i.s. >> you had bulldozers coming through clearing off whatever the ground cover was before that. and grasses are perfect for healing the scarred land scape. >> it set off a backyard arms race. if you're feeling a little outdone by your neighbors here's consolation. it turns out that grass really is greener on the other side. that's because looking across the fence at the neighbor's yard, you see more of the sides of the blades of grass. not the dirt between the blades. but when you look straight down at the grass under your feet, you see more of the brown dirt between the blades of grass. sorry to tell you, the grass does actually look greener on the other side of the fence. >> osgood: next summer movies. >> hit me. come on, son. >> osgood: serious and silly. >> you dress up and put on,,

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>> osgood: can a pair of new films from a pair of big-name directors help to answer any of life's big questions? they can try. here's our critic david edelstein. >> two nostalgic movies about american legend has flashy opening at the cannes film festival and have washed up on our shores. from woody allen comes the supernatural comedy unite in paris. from the scarely reclusive terrence melik, the symbolic epic the tree of life. >> to the end of time. >> reporter: let's start with woody.

his latest films are like breezy biblical parables except there's no god or justice or love. life is meaningless. the best you can do is find a good restaurant. >> that's great. we can spend some time together. >> we have a lot of commitments but i'm sure.... >> what? >> reporter: i have a problem buying into the world view of someone whose world is a closed eco-system, who is locked in some romantic day dream of old movies and music. the good news is that in midnight in paris, allen has made the exhilaration and danger of living in the past disdaining. owen wilson is a wonderfully dopey and sad as a screen writer in paris with his upward low mobile financee who wants to stay and write novels. >> why are you so dressed up? >> i was jut doing a little writing. >> you dress up and put on cologne to write. >> you know how i think better in the shower and i get the positive ions going in there. >> reporter: really he wants to be in paris in the '20s

alongside scott and zelad and hemingway and all those giants living high and making art. then at midnight, paf. he's back in time. how? allen breezes past all that which is good. why do we need dumb sci-fi wheels pulleys. what the writer learns as the girlfriend of various painters is that most people are nostalgic for the past. even people in the past. so wake up and live in the present. i'm talking to you, too, woody, even though you wrote it. midnight in paris is light and funny. the tree of life is the opposite. >> there are two ways to life. the way of nature. and the way of grace. >> reporter: only terrence malick fifth movie in almost 40 years, it's his big one. part creation epic, part family drama. an answer to kubrick's 2001

and maybe milton's paradise lost. he uses all his cinematic resources to trace the connections between the fleeting and the infinite. if that sounds pretentious, you ain't heard nothing yet. >> okay. here, come on. >> reporter: there is little story as such. brad pitt plays the macho head of the '50's texas family. >> hit me. come on. hit me. >> reporter: and sean penn his son when middle aged but this is less a narrative than a tapestry of images. some depicting the birth of the cosmos and the beginning of life on earth with dinosaurs. how does it connect? malick's films we're born into the garden of eden that is the natural world and then civilization and sex and aggression corrupt us. >> i feel like i'm bumping into.... >> reporter: penn is the guy who has to get back to the garden. too bad he does nothing but totter around looking

stricken. the tree of life is divisive. for malick freaks it rocks their world. others will want to throw rocks at anyone who recommends it. it doesn't gel. it's madly self-indulgent. but i think some selfs are vast enough to be worth indulging. ♪. >> osgood: ahead.... >> they really look like lincoln logs. they fit together so perfectly. >> osgood: mo rocca gets cabin fever. ,,,,,,,,,,,,

>> osgood: whatever your do it yourself project this weekend you'll have a tough time topping our mo rocca who has caught a serious case of cabin fever. >> reporter: how powerful is the symbol of the log cabin in american lohr?

in 1840, william henry harrison campaigned as the hard sider and log cabin candidate. a man of the people except that, well, he wasn't born in a log cabin. he was born here. seven presidents including the rail-splitting abraham lincoln were born in log cabins. you still see them today. some rustic. some grand. a smattering of them republicans. but most log cabins today are built by five-year-olds. where are the americans with the grit of our pioneer forebearers? a few can be found paddling down the connecticut river. students from dartmouth college in nearby hanover new hampshire. since last summer, they've been building a log cabin to replace one that burned down after 57 years.

>> this is our cabin. >> reporter: greg is team leader. >> i mean they really look like lincoln logs. they fit together so perfectly. >> reporter: it may look like these logs are simply stacked on top of each other. they're not. >> all of the logs are carved with chainsaws to fit at the notches in the corners and along the entire length of the logs as well. >> reporter: with their cabin nearly complete, the students showed me what it takes to make just a single log cabin ready. precision. and strength. >> this log needs to be moved now. >> yep. we have tools here that we call cross haulers. >> reporter: why does everything look like a prop from a horror film. first comes draw-shaping, stripping the log clean of bark. much harder than it looks.

>> this is like the kp duty of log building. >> reporter: this is the brainy part of it, right? then it's ready for scribing. >> it takes a steady hand for sure and patience. >> reporter: kate uses a combination compass and level to mark exactly how much of a notch should be cut out of one log so it fits perfectly over the one below it. >> as you're pulling along you're drawing the bottom log on to the top one. you are cool hand kate. can i try it? sure. >> reporter: you really need a steady happened for this. >> my bubbles are level. how am i doing? >> good. >> reporter: once the lines are drawn they need to be cut. time to fire up the chainsaw. this is the most intimidating part. to the layman, it's the chainsaw. >> sure. yeah. >> reporter: kodiak burke, named after the bear, started

using a chainsaw when he was ten years old. the safety i'm guessing is pretty important. >> very. >> reporter: he suited me up for action. >> they're made of a very, very tough fiber. >> reporter: ah, my very first pair of chainsaw chaps. really. should i be wearing a top with this. >> no, it's not necessary. >> reporter: well, we'll see. after a few practice cuts, i was having fun. >> nice. >> reporter: and then it was time to give a real log a bold cut. remember those lines we drew? it's like a loose tooth. >> there you go. >> reporter: okay. the moment of truth was upon us. would my log fit? i'm lined up. >> watch your fingers. >> reporter: so the fact that i can get my finger up here is

not a good thing. >> that is not a good thing. >> reporter: as the saying goes, if it doesn't fit, you must use a giant mallette to slam it into place. fortunately as max friedman verified. >> you can see where it curves in on itself. >> reporter: oh, wow. my log lined up pretty nicely. these logs belong together. >> they belong together. we made them belong together. >> reporter: yes, we did. a full day's work and i put one notch on one log. next to a cabin made from 60 perfectly spehr interlocking logs. maybe there's a good reason why presidential candidates used to always claim they built a log cabin. >> having a project like that under your belt i think gives anyone legitimacy. >> reporter: i'm here to tell you that anyone who builds one of these things gets my vote.

>> check this guy out. >> osgood: ahead bill whitaker chats with mike tyson. tough guy no more? and layer, tributes to heroes. [ male announcer ] succeeding in today's market requires more than wishful thinking. it requires determination and decisive action. i go to e-trade and get unbiased analyst ratings and 24/7 help from award-winning customer support to take control of my finances and my life.

i tap into the power of revolutionary mobile apps. to trade wherever. whenever. life isn't fully experienced sitting idly by. neither is investing. [ birds chirping ] >> it's sunday morning on cbs and here again is charles osgood. >> osgood: in his prime iron mike was a formidable a boxer as ever entered the ring. mike tyson used to make

headlines outside the ring as well. but now he's retired and he says far more laid back than he was in his bad old days. bill whitaker has our sunday profile. >> i'm the best ever. i'm the most brutal and vicious and most ruthless champion there's ever been. no one can stop me. >> reporter: if you were around in the 1980s and '90s, you surely know mike tyson. >> this is my calling from god. this is what i do. >> reporter: a braggard, a brawler who was the youngest undisputed heavyweight champ ever. iron mike, the self-proclaimed baddest man on the planet, was one of the richest, most recognizable athletes in the world. >> i'm the best in the world. even though a lot of up don't like to hear that, it's a fact. i'm the best. you know what i mean? sometimes i don't want to believe it myself but it's the truth. >> reporter: his successes in

the ring matched only by his excesses outside it. >> i didn't hurt anyone. i love women. you know what i mean? my mother is is a woman. >> reporter: the women, the drugs, the crimes, the controversy. >> check this guy out. >> reporter: but that was then. this is now. at 44 he shed 150 pounds and a lot of old baggage. >> check these guys out. these are cool guys. >> reporter: he turned away from his outsized lusts and lifestyle, traded them in for the sun-drenched suburbs of las vegas and endless time with his oldest friend, his pigeons. >> these are my babies. >> reporter: it's a passion he shared with the audience of animal planet in a recent series "taking on tyson." >> these two are related. that's father and son. these birds here are 14 years

old. >> reporter: the bad man now dedicated bird man. and full-time dad. he shares this sub urban house with his third wife kiki and infant son napping upstairs and two-year-old milan. hi. that's bill. say hi to bill. >> hi. >> reporter: he's father of eight but never spent much quality time with the older ones. >> never been hands on consistently like this. i know i should be shot in the head because that's what i was. i was so in love with myself that i had no competitors. >> reporter: where did that mike tyson go? where did this mike tyson come from? >> i don't know. he's not as exciting as the cold guy but he's pretty, you know, he's going to get the job done now. >> reporter: the job now? well, he's fighting to change his life. in some ways he's been doing that his whole life.

abandoned by his father as an infant, raised by his mother, he grew up poor on the meanest of brooklyn streets. his first fight was over one of his birds. >> i said give me my bird back. he said you want it? he cracked it and put the blood all over my face. for some reason i just started fighting right leer. the first fight i had in my life started right here. >> reporter: as a young man, his pigeons meant the world to him. >> they're like my brothers and sisters and my friends. i don't have to worry about them asking me for any money or trying to get over on me or trying to hurt me for any reason. >> reporter: still he seemd headed for a life of crime until legendary trainer and manager threw him a life line. boxing. he was good at it. tough and disciplined.

>> he liked it. i thought it was cool because they kept saying nice things about me every time i did it. i was born in hell. every time i would do well, it's one step out of hell. so, yeah, i enjoyed it a lot. >> reporter: it took you places? >> i've never dreamed i'd see them before. it took you quite high. brought me quite low too. in order to fail greatly, you have to attempt to succeed greatly. the two come together. >> with the upper cut. a big right hand. >> reporter: when he was at the top of his game, electrifying and terrifying, he was at the top of the world. vanquishing contenders. >> please welcome. >> reporter: flouting convention, living the high life on his terms. >> welcome mike tyson. >> reporter: earning by some sometimes as much as $400

million, more than enough to feed all his appetites. >> it was fun being that guy. you know what i mean? it was fun being in trouble, doing what i wanted to do. people are addicted to chaos. maybe that was me. >> reporter: addicted to chaos. >> no doubt. got me in trouble. >> reporter: trouble with women. his first marriage dissolved amid charges of spouse abuse. >> there's a time when he cannot control his temper. >> reporter: he was convicted and served time for rape. and he perpetrated one of the most infamous acts in modern sports history. in a 1997 comeback match he bitty vander holyfield's ears, tore off a piece of one. mike tyson really never came back from that. >> i'm sorry that i bit him.

i started really liking him again. he's a good guy. you know what i mean? i was just pissed off and i bit him. undisciplined. i'm sorry. i didn't mean to do it. >> you punk-ass white boy. >> i can't handle being that guy. that guy is a creation. i'm a baddest man on the planet. there's nobody like that. people like that don't exist. i just had to adapt to the way to say it. >> reporter: what do you think of that mike tyson when you look back on him? >> i don't know. he's kind of scary. i wouldn't want to be that guy anymore. you know what i mean? and i get it now. i didn't get it before. that's a very scary guy. this guy right here was next to that guy. i would be uncomfortable. >> reporter: his career on the mat, he filed for bankruptcy in 2003. soon retired from boxing.

>> announcer: mike tyson quits. he's not coming out. >> reporter: he says it's the best thing he ever did. >> that life is gone. the entourage is gone. the riches gone. the outrageous celebrity, gone. >> well, that's good. i have my wife and my kids. it doesn't match up to my ankle compared to my wife and my children who like me and respect me. a little bit at least. you can't compare to that. you can't. not even a little bit. >> reporter: staying on the straight and narrow has had its ups and downs. he's had recent brushes with the law. a cocaine conviction in 2007, arrested for scuffling with a photographer in 2009. but he's been to rehab and is now 2.5 years sober. he knows skeptics will think this new mike tyson is just another act.

he wonders if he's fooling himself. from his sub urban enclave he can see las vegas shimmering in the distance where he once was up in lights. resisting the pull of the past is the hardest fight of his life. >> if you're not together you're a problem. my life is a struggle. i thought you knew that when you came here. it's not easy. in order for me to make this work i have to kill my ego. i can't have an ego. >> reporter: he struggled to hold on when his four-year-old daughter from a previous relationship die in a freak accident two years ago. did that change you? >> you know, i like to use that excuse. my daughter died. it sounds great for television too. my daughter died and i changed my life. my life around. i'm not the scum bag no more. i would like to believe that that is the reason that i changed. i would also like to believe that i'm just tired and i'm stupid, foolish, and i need to

get my life together. >> reporter: he calls himself a work in progress. while he hasn't given up all the vestiges of the past... you like the tattoo? >> i love the tattoo, bill. i love it, bill. the tattoo looks like i'm going to kick your ass. doesn't it? >> reporter: he reads a lot. >> from pericles, to plato, machiavelli, mark twain. >> reporter: and he's discovered his funny side. he had audiences laugh,the hit movie "the hangover." he returns into hangover part 2 this weekend. he says it helps pay the bills. did you know that you could be funny? >> i know i'm a clown. i'm a joke. you can look at my career. yeah, i'm funny. i'm really funny. >> reporter: if his career is a joke, it doesn't make him laugh.

what is this stuff? this is history here. you are history. >> this is garbage. >> reporter: this is meaningless? >> at one time it meant a lot. when you're a young kid this is everything to you. then your priorities change. you just want your children to be happy and do nice things. that makes you happy. this is nothing. this is just nothing, man. i love you. >> reporter: keeping his family together, keeping his life together, they don't give belts for that. but succeed in this arena and he might truly be a champion. >> this is pretty interesting. i like this life right now. >> reporter: when in your life has been the best time? >> now. now. right now. all that money, all that

liquor, all that dope, right now. >> here it comes, mario, the checkered flag of victory. >> osgood: next the indy 500 turns 100. ung. but i was still taking a risk with my cholesterol. anyone with high cholesterol may be at increased risk of heart attack. diet and exercise weren't enough for me. i stopped kidding myself. i've been eating healthier, exercising more, and now i'm also taking lipitor. if you've been kidding yourself about high cholesterol, stop. along with diet, lipitor has been shown to lower bad cholesterol 39 to 60 percent. lipitor is fda approved to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke in patients who have heart disease or risk factors for heart disease. [ female announcer ] lipitor is not for everyone, including people with liver problems and women who are nursing, pregnant or may become pregnant. you need simple blood tests to check for liver problems. tell your doctor if you are taking other medications or if you have any muscle pain or weakness.

this may be a sign of a rare but serious side effect. lets go... haha. if you have high cholesterol, you may be at increased risk of heart attack and stroke. don't kid yourself. talk to your doctor about your risk and about lipitor. with the red, white, and blue. ocean spray cranberry, white cranberry, and blueberry juice cocktails. [ coughs ] okay, i believe this one is yours? [ clears throat ] so let's plant some perennials that'll turn up every year. trees and shrubs to give us depth. and fill it out with flowers placed in just the perfect place. let's start at the place with the best plants, people, and prices.

how about we plant a weekend, water it, and watch a summer spring up? more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. we're lowering the cost of a day in the dirt with a special buy on this mulch -- 4 bags are just 10 bucks. >> osgood: the indianapolis 500 will turn 100 later today. we mark the occasion with our russ mitchell. >> reporter: this is the view of the indianapolis motor speedway from the passenger seat of the official pace car. around the infield and down the straight-aways. the grand stands almost become a blur. the indy 500 is a 200-lap marathon from green flag to checkered flag. since the first race in 1911, top-qualifying speeds have tripled. the track here at indy is 2.5- miles long. 100 years ago the average speed here was 75 miles an

hour. last year it was 225 miles an hour. >> from a driving perspective, you know, the cars are so fast. >> reporter: british driver won this race in 2005. a few years ago he showed me what it's like inside an indy car. two words. exhilarating. scary. >> when you have 400,000 spectators, it's phenomenal. you have that history. you have a lot of tradition. >> reporter: one tradition has the winner drinking milk, not champagne, in victory lane. >> this car won the 1957 race. >> reporter: donald davidson is the speedway historian. looking after a third of the winning indy cars at the speedway museum. >> the '64 winner is the last.... >> reporter: indy cars evolved from the model model-t age to the space age. engines moved to the rear. steering wheels got smaller. >> in this you're practically on your back. >> reporter: the cars more

aerodynamic and computer designed. has this race been a text track for things that wind up in production parts? >> certainly improved tires, spark plugs. shock absorbers. aerodynamics and then more recently electronics. >> reporter: and of course the rear-view mirror. rigged up by the first indy 500 winner. >> here it comes the checkered flag of victory. >> reporter: mario andretti led indy 11 times but won only once in 1969. >> i think probably 400 miles i would have won it six times. >> reporter: brazilian driver has won the 500 three times in the past decade. >> there was nothing and no better feeling when you finish the turn 4 and see that checkered flag come at you. >> the heart break of the day. >> reporter: along with triumph there's been tragedy.

of the races 732 competitors since 1911, 15 have lost their lives in wrecks during the 500. >> start your engines. >> reporter: but the fans keep coming. when this 100th anniversary race does start, 82-year-old joe rowmack will be in the grand stand for the 50th time. what is it about this place that keeps you coming back? >> it's a combination of things. it's the speed. the technical advancements. and the wheel-to-wheel racing. >> reporter: a pilgrimage for race fans. many of whom kiss the last original bricks of the century old track. >> 500 mile is the camelot of automobile racing. it is the pinnacle. >> look at the size of this. >> osgood: coombing up, rock

of ages. man: and all the pens are put down... woman: and everything there is to learn is learned. man: till the heroes retire and the monsters return to their dens... woman: and all the plots are wrapped up. man: till that day... boy: by hook or by crook... girl: by book or by nook... woman: i will read. with less chronic low back pain. imagine living your life with less chronic osteoarthritis pain. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help. cymbalta is a non-narcotic treatment that's fda-approved to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain. one pill a day, every day, can help reduce this pain. tell your doctor right away if your mood worsens, you have unusual changes in mood or behavior or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults.

cymbalta is not approved for children under 18. people taking maois or thioridazine or with uncontrolled glaucoma should not take cymbalta. taking it with nsaid pain relievers, aspirin, or blood thinners may increase bleeding risk. severe liver problems, some fatal, were reported. signs include abdominal pain and yellowing of the skin or eyes. talk with your doctor about your medicines, including those for migraine, or if you have high fever, confusion and stiff muscles, to address a possible life-threatening condition. tell your doctor about alcohol use, liver disease, and before you reduce or stop taking cymbalta. dizziness or fainting may occur upon standing. side effects include nausea, dry mouth, and constipation. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor about cymbalta. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help. go to cymbalta.com to learn about a free trial offer.

>> osgood: you're invited. join us here on our set for a conversation with comedian jimmy fallon sunday morning june 12. if you can't make it in person, see it online at cbs sunday morning dot-com.

>> osgood: at military cemeteries all across the country our respect for america's fallen heroes is quite literally carved in stone. stone that comes from a small town of danby vermont where serena altschul will take us. >> reporter: deep under vermont's green mountains, pure white marble is being cut away from the earth. >> you have the nice white... do you see the krystals. >> reporter: danby's named vermont quarry is the largest underground marble mine in the world. it extends more than a mile into dorsett mountain and stretches over 40 underground acres.

look at the size of this. oh, my gosh. >> it's about, you know, about 70 tons. 70, 80 tons. >> reporter: mike blair is vermont quarry's manager. ever since the mine opened in 1902 its marble has been found in kitchens, floors, statues, monuments. entire buildings especially in washington d.c.. >> pennsylvania avenue could really very well be called vermont marble avenue. well, the u.s. and senate office buildings are all vermont marble. a lot of the u.s. court building is. you have some parts of the white house. >> reporter: universities. >> universities. johns hopkins. bethesda naval. >> reporter: but the very best danby marble is is reserved for our nation's veterans. >> for our national cemeteries, we want to make sure that it is the best, the purest white

marble that we can quarry. >> reporter: as the 40-ton blocks are hoisted out, less than 10% of the marble will be selected for use in our national cemeteries. bun destination for the blocks is barre vermont where they are cut and shaped into head stones. >> we have three-meter and 3.5- meter saws that we saw the slabs the same dimension, four inches thick. all upright marble the same size. they're 13 inches left to right. four inches thick and 42 inches high. >> reporter: just martell is president of granite industries of vermont. one of the companies that specializes in making national cemetery head stones. >> we produce about between 25,000 and 27,000 uprights annually. >> reporter: after the stone is cut, stenciled are prepared and glued on to the stone:

this just came in? >> last night. we receive on our national cemeteries order, so it came in late yesterday afternoon electronically. while this is a super important head stone, serena because mr. buckles is the last known survivor of world war i. as you can see, february 1901 to february 27.... >> reporter: how old is he? he was.... >> 110 years old. >> reporter: once the stencils are precisely fixed, the stones move into the ib scribing area. after all the information is placed on the marble, the names are painted. this young man just graduated from west point in 2009. both he and his brother served in afghanistan. it was there darren hidalgo was killed by an improvised explosive device.

it it is this ultimate sacrifice that the workers here acknowledge as they prepare the head stones for final shipping. you can tell there's a lot of reference for what's being done. >> as well it should be. you know, these guys put their lives on the line for us when they go over there. (taps) >> reporter: like so many other fallen soldiers, darren hidalgo now lies under his marble head stone from danby vermont. he is buried where he went to school at the united states military academy at west point. and frank buckles, the last veteran of world war i, he now lies in arlington national cemetery. (taps continues to play) >> reporter: perhaps there's a small amount of solace to be gained from all the work, care and respect that has gone into honoring our veterans' final

resting place. >> osgood: correspondent serena altschul. bob schieffer is off this weekend. so we go now to harry smith in washington for a look at what's ahead on face the nation. good morning, harry. >> smith: good morning, charles. of course the president is head to go joplin, missouri today. we'll check in with missouri governor jay nixon. later the politics of medicare with eric cantor and debbie wasserman shultz. that's coming up. >> osgood: thank you, harry. we'll be watching. next week here on sunday morning, you can't run. you can't hide. bed bugs. doug: oh...hey there hey...! gecko: you sound like a happy man. doug: yeah yeah! i saved so much by insuring my motorcycle and rv with geico, i wrote a song about it. gecko: alright, let's hear it! curtis: yeah jam session! doug: one, two... ♪ (singing) i got my motorcycle ♪ ♪ and my rv now i got more money. ♪

vo: geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. so i'm taking charge with claritin-d. it relieves even my worst allergy symptoms. nothing works stronger, faster or longer for nasal congestion and sinus pressure without drowsiness. i only live claritin clear, with claritin-d. this sunday morning moment of nature is sponsored by... >> osgood: we leave you this sunday morning, the unofficial start of summer, with the wild horses at matterland's assategue island national seashore.

>> osgood: i'm charles osgood. we wish you a good holiday weekend and hope you'll join us again next sunday morning. until then, i'll see you on the radio. finally, there's a choice for my patients with an irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation, or afib, that's not caused by a heart valve problem. today we have pradaxa to reduce the risk of a stroke caused by a clot. in a clinical trial, pradaxa 150 mg reduced stroke risk 35% more than warfarin. and with pradaxa, there's no need for those regular blood tests. pradaxa is progress. pradaxa can cause serious, sometimes fatal, bleeding. don't take pradaxa if you have abnormal bleeding, and seek immediate medical care for unexpected signs

of bleeding, like unusual bruising. pradaxa may increase your bleeding risk if you're 75 or older, have kidney problems or a bleeding condition, like stomach ulcers. or if you take aspirin products, nsaids, or blood thinners. tell your doctor about all medicines you take, any planned medical or dental procedures, and don't stop taking pradaxa without your doctor's approval, as stopping may increase your stroke risk. other side effects include indigestion, stomach pain, upset, or burning. if you have afib not caused by a heart valve problem, ask your doctor if pradaxa can reduce your risk of a stroke. captioning made possible by johnson & johnson, where quality products for the american family have been a tradition for generations captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org ,,,,,,,,